Poor Rinaldo didn’t have a chance.
It might have been different if his father had lived. A gentle, whimsical, man, his father had spent hours building ingenious toys for his three children. Rinaldo, who adored the man, often sat by his feet, building his own small toys from the scraps his father gave him.
But then his father died. And his mother…
Rinaldo’s mother had never been kind or warm, and her husband’s death did not improve her. Instead of comforting her children, or even openly weeping for her loss, she became angry and suspicious. As Rinaldo became taller and his voice began to deepen, she became absolutely convinced that he was full of evil, sinful thoughts.
In her paranoid rage, she locked young Rinaldo into the basement, where he stayed for years. Neither his mother nor his sisters visited him or spoke kind words to him through the door. All he had were brief moments when light would fill the dark basement as his mother threw his food down to him, and the remnants of his father’s toyshop.
With no other occupation left to him, Rinaldo taught himself to build toys. Clever toys, with clockwork mechanisms that made them dance and spin. Funny toys, with sharp surprises built into their soft bodies. Dangerously beautiful toys, designed to enchant his mother and sisters with their delicacy and grace. When he was 16, he won free with the help of all his wonderful toys, which sliced his mother and sisters to bits.
The social workers who dealt with Rinaldo were horrified at his life imprisoned in the basement. Although some of the police became suspicious of him, no one ever accused Rinaldo of anything. Instead, they placed him in a foster home. But Rinaldo’s foster family was far too serious. Always worrying about schoolwork and chores. They even tried to take away his toys! He wasn’t having that. No one was ever telling him what to do again.
Rinaldo fled, renaming himself Black Harlequin, and began working his mischief upon the world. Escapades, he called his crimes. He would build toys to delight and terrify, and send them out into the world to slice and cut and, of course, bring back money and resources so he could build even more toys!
Black Harlequin can’t stand seriousness. Life should be about fun! And mischief! And blood. He likes blood an awful lot. He loves sending his toys on escapades to rob and kill for him. It’s the most entertaining thing ever!
He’s completely unpredictable. One moment he’ll be delighted and happy, and will actually give out real toys – the kind that inspire wonder in children’s hearts. The next moment, he’s slashing someone’s throat because they weren’t smiling enough.
Be wary of him and his jokes. He loves surprising people, and it almost never ends well. Should he actually achieve enough wealth and power to expand his criminal enterprises, it will be very, very hard to fight him. His vast array of demented toys allows him, in a sense, to be everywhere at once. Rumor has it that he’s building a supertoy, something more deadly than anything he’s built yet.
